T is for Twizzle

Tim and I were talking today about how lucky he is that twizzles came easy for him on the ice. Right now I love doing our mirror synchronized twizzles more than anything else. They really are 5 revolutions with one arm over our heads, and we do them pretty consistently. As a team we do about 4 tries out of 5 that are good. If we mess up it's usually one of us putting our foot down but we're trying to keep going no matter what. My goal is to get more than a level 1 on these twizzles along with (I hope) a positive GOE.

Other free dance elements are coming along. Our spread eagle lift has become easy and now we just need to add speed. Our spin is so much better than last year since we have a good entry method - we have speed and revolutions, now just need a good-looking position. We have played with several other lifts for our second lift and we'll see what comes out of that.

Footwork? That will probably be the most difficult element since we have never done a footwork sequence in a dance hold. Last year we did midline no touch which probably won't be allowed in the future for adults. We're working on rockers and counters so that we can have clean recognizable turns in our footwork sequence. I wish that were as easy as synchronized twizzles~!

Now if only we had some music. The search continues.

Splat

The first thing I did after I got up this morning was fall down. Well, that was after driving to the rink, putting on my skates, etc. But the first memorable thing I did today was fall down, before I'd even showered or had a cup of coffee. Actually WE fell down. Tim and I have come up with two new lifts. Yesterday we spent a couple of hours skating and working on lifts and a shoot-the-duck move which meant this morning we were both sore all over. The first thing we tried was our curve lift and the setup was too far apart ... so down we went in pseudo slow motion.

Tim hit his knee and I somehow hit my right thigh. This is the second time I've hit that same spot falling out of a lift - I have no idea how I can land there. It's what hits the ice first, evidently, even though I then bounced onto my butt. So now I'm limping around work pathetically. I think my co-workers find me amusing since I'm often limping and almost always stiff, sore or injured - and allegedly I'm an athlete. They all walk just fine without the benefit of "working out."

I wonder if "sitting on the ice" is considered a difficult position for both lifter and liftee? The level should go up if the fall is both unique and gracefully done, IMO, even if the GOE does have to be -3.

The rest of the practice was OK. We do have a nicely synchronized mirror FI twizzle with arm over the head and 5 turns, which comes out on a running edge. Not sure what the adult calling specs will be, but I'd say they must be at least a level 6!

We thought we had music but now that we've cut it and brought it on the ice we are finding it not so good. The search continues. We've rejected pretty much everything I always wanted to skate to and now I'm searching through the list of everything new that I never bothered to consider. Once we find something we both adore I'm sure our coach/choreographer will reject it. Sigh. Maybe we should just choose something overused like Zorro and be done with it!

Learn to Ice Dance DVD

My 15 minutes of fame ... available at http://www.icedancers.com/

Inertia & other Physics 101 Concepts I had forgotten

It's amazing how much progress we've made in 2 weeks. We've had to be very disciplined about doing all of our exercises each day - and the list is growing so it can take an hour or more if we really get into it.

We've focused on controlling rotation, adding power, getting down into the ice, extending our extensions and matching the level of our arms and head positions. In short, adding speed and the finer details which will make us look so much more polished, we hope.

Right now I don't feel badly at all that we will miss the competitions this season. The rush to get dances into competition shape would be exhilarating but at the end of the season we wouldn't be better skaters, and after last year that's got to be our focus.

Back to Basics

We have spent the past week working on exercises to develop unison, power, and edge quality. It has been an enlightening experience, pointing out our various weaknesses. On the flip side, we have already seen vast improvement. If we can master these exercises and then add more difficult exercises we feel the compulsories will be much easier for us. We already went back and tried things that were hard for us last year and they were much improved.

We realize that we need to invest some time in this endeavor. We never really had the chance last year, with 13 tests to pass, two CDs to learn, an OD to choreograph, etc. This year is a good one to focus on what we ignored in the past. We'll also test Tim's remaining silver dances. Compared to last year this may seem boring, but we are really feeling happy with our progress and can see so much potential.

We certainly don't regret last season, despite struggling against our lack of experience skating together. I believe that if we could do everything we did last year without having these basics in our vocabulary, we will be so much better equipped when we do. This foundation will allow the freedom to do the things we want to do in our choreography and more easily skate the higher-level compulsory dances.

Back from Regionals

Just back from judging NWP Regionals and exhausted, so took the day off. I think I was on the panel for every final qualifying event, Juvenile through Senior, as well as some non-qualifying events. Yikes. Add to that Thursday's power outage and overseeing 4 trial and 2 practice judges and it was a long four days.

Tim is out of town anyway so I don't feel guilty for sleeping in today. We'll be back on the ice Wednesday. I am not judging Sectionals so now that my judging commitments are over until January I feel like it's time to dive in to our choreography.

TBD

So after 22 weeks, give or take a few days and seconds, we are back on the ice.

We aren't doing any lifts or spins yet and probably won't for some time. Tim's left leg is definitely weaker than it was and it will take some time to build it back up. He is not letting anything stop him though; he is pushing himself to skate as well as he can. There are times when I don't notice any difference at all; other times a momentary lapse reminds me he's not 100% yet.

Other than stamina which we are both lacking, we didn't lose many of the qualities we worked so hard for last year. Parts of our Starlight actually seem better than they were. The Paso seems like a much better dance for us than the Blues. We are able to work things out and fix them more quickly already this year than we did last year.

However, the momentum and enthusiasm aren't the same. We don't joke around on the ice much or talk about anything other than skating. It's all business as we try to get back into training, adjust to getting up early again, try to work out choregraphy and learn a new compulsory dance. We didn't have a week in Sun Valley or the summer working on dances just for fun to ease us in to the new season with enjoyment. We have some new scheduling and coaching challenges. Neither of us want skating to be our entire life this year and that changes the atmosphere.

Honestly, I don't yet know what to think of this season although I am very happy that it has started.

What I did on my summer vacation ...

Cheryl (the producer) sent me proofs of the DVD case and a poster she will take to dance weekends (above). I suggested some changes - we're not "pros," and we are not "National Competitors" in the strict sense. I've asked Cheryl to update this. I have not yet seen the footage as they are still editing. The photo doesn't look too bad considering it was taken after we shot the video - after two hours of non-stop skating, my god, I don't think I even combed my hair! That's right, my hair; thanks to the high humidity in upstate New York in August it was a curly frizzy red mess. I was having a very bad hair day but I don't think it affected my skating.

(By the way, that's not Tim but six-time National Adult Dance Champion Mike Ricigliano, who asked me to do this video because we were both going to be in Lake Placid and his lovely partner Julie could not be there. Cheryl wanted to use adult ice dancers who had tested their gold dances and originally wanted Mike and Julie since they are the reigning national champions. I just happened to be at the right place at the right time and was invited to be the stand-in for Julie.)

Cheryl said that the footage came out really well despite our tight shooting schedule and early-morning start. Mike and I donated our time to the project because it's something we both believe is important and we wanted to share our love of ice dancing with beginning dancers of all ages. Once it's complete the video will be available at http://www.icedancers.com/; the website is still under construction.

Some day I will tell the "behind-the-scenes" story and show outtakes!

Ode to My Spirals

"A man must love a thing very much if he not only practices it without any hope of fame and money, but even practices it without any hope of doing it well."
-- G. K. Chesterton

Cha Cha Stumblado

The post title is really for comedic effect because I thought today's lesson with the new dance coach went really well and I didn't stumble a lotto, or at all really. There is a lot to work on with this dance (Cha Cha Congelado) but the steps overall aren't hard (pattern, timing and tracking are hard).

We also worked on Rhumba and after the lesson I worked on it quite a bit solo and feel like I made some progress. I wanted to work on Austrian but I think these two international dances along with novice moves are enough for now. Maybe we'll walk through the Austrian at some point. These two dances are actually do-able and even test-able some day whereas Austrian probably would not be testable without a lotto work.

I am very pleased with myself for trying something new - two new coaches in 3 days and all new things to work on - it feels good.

When Tim gets back I hope that all of this makes me a much stronger and easier-to-skate-with partner. The stronger and more stable I can be for him the easier his comeback to the ice will be.

Moves and More

I have been doing the Tuesday night Lloyd Center group MITF class taught by Coach R. Last night was all twizzles - strangely similar to the twizzles I need for the Austrian Waltz. Perhaps this is a harmonic convergence? Most of the other skaters in the class are not ice dancers. There is a nice range of ability in the class, mostly adults, some beginners but mostly advanced beginners, then me (I don't know how to categorize myself). Coach R does a great job giving everyone something challenging for their level. I love the class because I don't have to worry about kids in the way or moving for kids who are jumping while practicing moves.

So I am going to get up early on Friday and have a private MITF lesson with Coach R. I'm not sure if I should just work on skills I may need for dance (mostly Junior MITF) or work on Novice so that I can test it some day. I guess we'll see. I am looking forward to a lesson from a non-dance coach.

It is now 16 weeks sans partner (not that I'm keeping track or anything). Hard to watch other teams picking music and working on choreography. I shouldn't complain, at least I'm able to skate. This has recently become a blog about me and my own skating vs. the team of Tim and Terri, but it does help keep me motivated when I write about it.

It's not the heat, it's the humidity ...

I'm just back from the Lake Placid Ice Dance Championships. I guess this could be considered a "scouting" trip since Adult Nationals will be at Lake Placid in April. I had to check out the venue, restaurants, party scene, etc. It was a good plan, but since I barely got to leave the rink I didn't get to do much scouting. I did verify that the rink contains ice, which is comforting; we should be all set for Adult Nationals.

After spending 14-hour days in the rink Thursday and Friday, I finally had some time off Saturday morning to stroll downtown and actually see the lake, although I found out later the lake I saw was NOT Lake Placid but merely Mirror Lake, which is smaller and not famous. Anyway it was a body of water adjacent to a nice park where I sat in an Adirondack chair (NOT comfortable I might add) and pondered the scene for some time before returning to the rink.

We did scratch from our open events since Tim is still not able to put on a boot due to swelling and he decided not to come to Placid. I kept myself busy judging and encouraging the 7 teams who did enter adult events here. I stayed at a bed and breakfast which was affordable and quiet but lacked air conditioning which I realized a bit too late would have been nice to have. It really is the humidity.

Sunday consisted of getting up at 4:30 AM and driving with Mike R. to Lake George, where we skated and were filmed for an introduction to ice dancing DVD for adults. After sitting for long periods and eating the very delicious catered food for several days it was nice to get out and skate for 2 hours. Of course my outbound flight was delayed out of JFK for several hours and contained a baby who screamed non-stop for 5 and a half hours along with the obligatory seat kicker/grabber behind me, so real sleep eluded me until I got home exhausted at 2 AM. I caught a cold the very next day thanks to the kindness of strangers sneezing and coughing on the airplane without bothering to cover their mouths and noses.

Despite all this I hope we make it back to Lake Placid in April somehow this season. There is something magical about the place, and I am sure that skating on olympic ice must be inspiring. After judging the Open Austrian Waltzes I think that's the international I want to work on if only I can find a coach to help me out until Tim gets back on the ice. Sounds like a good plan for now.

My Gold Dance Test

Thanks to Will Eastler for propping me through the Quickstep - this completes the standard gold dance test for me. I have to admit I didn't work very hard on it - I thought the other 3 gold dances were the "difficult ones" - and I tested it on the spur of the moment with only a couple of weeks to prepare and a couple of hours skating with Will - so I am a bit underwhelmed at this achievement. The other 3 dance tests felt like more. However, I am really glad I went for it.

I will post my "Academy Award" speech here at some point. Terri

6 weeks

It has now been 6 weeks since Tim's injury but it feels like 6 months. He had surgery to repair a totally ruptured achilles tendon on April 30th - a very painful and difficult undertaking with prognosis of a slow recovery. While he's now off crutches, walking, doing PT and making progress, it is still going to be a long time before he's back on the ice.

"Long time" is still undefined. It could be end of summer or it could be November before he's back on the ice. Or it could be longer, in which case we may not compete this year. It seems like a very long time to me no matter what.

Meanwhile I am trying to stay motivated and skate once in a while. Motivation includes listening to possible OD music and trying to skate to it, working on twizzles in my bad direction (Tim's good direction), and trying to work out some lessons with a coach so I can work on some international dances just for fun. But really none of this motivates me greatly.

We are both doing other things in our lives right now - traveling, working, doing things around the house and getting caught up with non-skating friends and family. It's been a change from spending 10+ hours a week with one another for a whole year and then all of a sudden not seeing each other at all - but I think it's good for both of us to reconnect with other aspects of our lives. This should help so that when we are back on the ice we are better able to balance skating with other things in life - a goal we had for the coming season even before the injury.

As we wrapped up last season we started planning for this new season, using the momentum of skating so well at nationals, and now it feels like that momentum is gone. That doesn't mean we won't get it back, and we do work well under pressure, so I am not writing off the season by any means. We want nothing more than to skate this year - with Sectionals in our home town and Nationals in Lake Placid - but we can't compromise Tim's healing to get there.

Nothing is impossible

This morning I realized that I had a text message written at 9:30 last night which read, "I think I just tore my Achilles, at the hospital now."

Indeed, Tim did tear his achilles 95% in ballet class last night and will need surgery, which can't be performed until the swelling subsides. It looks like he will be out at least a few months. He is upset and in a lot of pain despite painkillers. We will need to cancel our performance May 5th at the Carousel ice show and also the Lake Placid competition in August.

We are thankful this happened now and not a few weeks ago before Chicago ... but it seems we are due for a string of good luck at some point to counteract the bad. Our plan was for Tim to test 3 more dances this summer so we could move up to Gold next year but it doesn't seem likely we can do that with a shortened season. We could stay in Pre-Gold another year and/or do Championship. But really it's too soon to even strategize.

I am trying "positive thinking." After the past season I know that nothing is impossible.
Terri

...

New skates ... $1,800
Coaching ... $8,000
Ice Time ... $10,000

Skating our best and winning a silver medal at Nationals ... Priceless

Final Round

All things considered, we skated well in the final round. The Portland group shouted "TNT are Dynamite" as we took the ice. We did two nice lifts, didn't fall down while spinning, and did the twizzles in the midline step sequence (and the rest of the sequence too). We felt the program was expressive and connected. From the crowd reaction I know that they felt it too.

We are happy with how we performed, and placing so well against so many really good and experienced teams is a bonus considering we might have withdrawn only a couple of days ago. I really enjoyed performing today and look forward to relaxing and watching the other Portland teams rock.

Some day we'll remember this and laugh ...

Laughing with Paul Harvath (above)

We had only one 20 minute practice today in the evening, so we spent the day coming off last night's high, resting, hydrating, stretching, etc. We got to the rink and were horrified to find that Tim had left his hard guards on, and that his blades had rusted! In last night's excitement he simply forgot to wipe them off and put on the soft guards.

We panicked a little but he tried them on the ice and didn't feel anything. Our practice was a bit shaky but I think we were just reacting to the stress of the rust. Tim said he felt a bit of pain in his hip as well. I was coughing at the end of the program due to the residual effects of the cold, but we did make it through a decent run-through. We just need to get through tomorrow, please please please.

Coach Anthony gave us kudos tonight regarding how far we'd come, saying I should be happy to have a partner who just keeps going through all kinds of adversity (I am) and that Tim should appreciate that I've been his anchor through the entire season.

Now it's time to get some sleep.

A very, very long day

So first, the important part. The initial round is over and we are in second place (!)

We won the starlight waltz, but more important than that, we got 2 first place ordinals on our blues (and ended up third in the dance, although second and third were very close). After struggling all season with the dance and skating it poorly at sectionals, we skated it the best we possibly could. I was so happy with how we skated it that it was easy to smile during the starlight. During the starligh we almost ran into the wall on the first pattern 3 turns - (adrenaline, I think). Other than that it was a great dance. I felt we danced both dances, and that was our goal.

John Dowding told us the difference between Sectionals and now was amazing - we look like a different team. I am so glad we worked with him at Sectionals; without his help I don't think our blues would ever have evolved to this.

Trivia - I did have to borrow Molly's bra due to leaving mine in the hotel room. OK, that was unnecessary information, but why not? It was such a long day I'm surprised we didn't have anything else go wrong. We woke up to snow on the ground, had a practice in the morning, ate lunch, rested at the hotel, had our official warmup, watched the gold dance event, then finally skated our event at 8:45 PM. All in all, a very long day.

The pre-gold dance group is very competitive; the other 5 teams are all very good skaters and all have prior competition experience, so we are thrilled to be sitting in second place going into the final round.

After our event we had trouble finding the Portland group for dinner, mainly because we didn't have GPS (we didn't have the address, just directions). See my blog from yesterday, I am lost without GPS! By the time we got there close to 11 PM Tim was starving and I just wanted dessert.

Tim is happy he never has to do the blues again. Little does he know that it is now my favorite dance and I want to compete it in the Lake Placid open event this summer - NOT!

I am now in the hotel's business center typing this. Kiyomi and Neil (who are in first place in our event) just walked by and burst into laughter. They always see me in here when they walk by. I think they believe I don't have a hotel room but that I'm actually living in the business center! I guess it's time for bed ...

Lost in Oak Brook

Finally, here we are in the Chicago 'burbs. Without the GPS system I think I might get lost, even though I've driven to the rink and back to the hotel several times now.

We arrived yesterday and practiced, then practiced again at noon or so today. After a half hour Tim did not look well. He has been fighting the flu. The good news - his hip is not bothering him. The cortisone shot seems to have worked. The bad news - he is really tired and sick. He is drinking pedialyte because he is so dehydrated. We just barely made it through the second practice. I skated a practice tonight by myself just to check out the other rink while Tim slept.

I am starting to cough but I'm ignoring it. I must get through the end of the week without being sick because really we need at least one of us healthy.

I think we will both be happy just to stay vertical during our dances now. This has become an endurance test and not a skating competition for us.